Basic tasks in Excel

Excel is an incredibly powerful tool for getting meaning out of vast amounts of data. But it also works really well for simple calculations and tracking almost any kind of information. The key for unlocking all that potential is the grid of cells. Cells can contain numbers, text, or formulas. You put data in your cells and group them in rows and columns. That allows you to add up your data, sort and filter it, put it in tables, and build great-looking charts. Let’s go through the basic steps to get you started.

Excel documents are called workbooks. Each workbook has sheets, typically called spreadsheets. You can add as many sheets as you want to a workbook, or you can create new workbooks to keep your data separate.

Adding numbers is just one of the things you can do, but Excel can do other math as well. Try some simple formulas to add, subtract, multiply, or divide your numbers.

Pick a cell, and then type an equal sign (=).

That tells Excel that this cell will contain a formula.

Type a combination of numbers and calculation operators, like the plus sign (+) for addition, the minus sign (-) for subtraction, the asterisk (*) for multiplication, or the forward slash (/) for division.

For example, enter =2+4, =4-2, =2*4, or =4/2.

Press Enter.

This runs the calculation.

You can also press Ctrl+Enter if you want the cursor to stay on the active cell.

The Quick Analysis tool (available in Excel 2016 and Excel 2013 only) let you total your numbers quickly. Whether it’s a sum, average, or count you want, Excel shows the calculation results right below or next to your numbers.

Select the cells that contain numbers you want to add or count.

Click the Quick Analysis button
in the bottom-right corner of the selection.

Click Totals, move your cursor across the buttons to see the calculation results for your data, and then click the button to apply the totals.

Conditional formatting or sparklines can highlight your most important data or show data trends. Use the Quick Analysis tool (available in Excel 2016 and Excel 2013 only) for a Live Preview to try it out.

Select the data you want to examine more closely.

Click the Quick Analysis button
in the bottom-right corner of the selection.

Explore the options on the Formatting and Sparklines tabs to see how they affect your data.

For example, pick a color scale in the Formatting gallery to differentiate high, medium, and low temperatures.

Select a range of data, such as A1:L5 (multiple rows and columns) or C1:C80 (a single column). The range can include titles that you created to identify columns or rows.

Select a single cell in the column on which you want to sort.

Click
to perform an ascending sort (A to Z or smallest number to largest).

Click
to perform a descending sort (Z to A or largest number to smallest).

To sort by specific criteria

Select a single cell anywhere in the range that you want to sort.

On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, choose Sort.

The Sort dialog box appears.

In the Sort by list, select the first column on which you want to sort.

In the Sort On list, select either Values, Cell Color, Font Color, or Cell Icon.

In the Order list, select the order that you want to apply to the sort operation — alphabetically or numerically ascending or descending (that is, A to Z or Z to A for text or lower to higher or higher to lower for numbers).

Click the arrow
in the column header to display a list in which you can make filter choices.

To select by values, in the list, clear the (Select All) check box. This removes the check marks from all the check boxes. Then, select only the values you want to see, and click OK to see the results.

Excel allows you to apply built-in templates, to apply your own custom templates, and to search from a variety of templates on Office.com. Office.com provides a wide selection of popular Excel templates, including budgets.